Kenyan horticultural industry has often been cited as success story because of the way it has successfully responded to pest challenges and notably the international food safety standards. However, the industry faces a new challenge that emanates from invasion by quarantine leafminer which has recently become a pest of economic importance in Kenya. Controlling leafminer poses serious challenges due to its biology and quarantine status in Kenya’s’ main fresh produce market. This paper examines farmers’ awareness of the leafminer pest and challenges faced by farmers to control it. There is high leafminer awareness among farmers and that pesticides are not effective in controlling it. Majority of snow pea growers use chemical control coupled with pest scouting. However, the timing of chemical control is poor as it occurs when the pest in its larval stage is buried in plant tissue. Results further show that farmers whose production practices are monitored for compliance with GlobalGAP use fewer control strategies. The implication of this study is that leafminer is likely to become a serious challenge unless integrated leafminer management strategy is developed and farmers educated on methods of identifying it in its early stages.

Agriculture is the backbone of the Kenyan economy contributing 26% to GDP and 70% to employment. Majority of the farmers in Kenya are smallholder farmers possessing less than 3 acres of land. The agricultural sector in Kenya has been facing several challenges among them declining yields. While the decline in yields could be associated with several other factors, it could also be as a result of the effect of insecure land tenure systems which are little understood. This study examines the technical efficiency of alternative land tenure systems among smallholder farmers and identifying the determinants of inefficiency with the objective of exploring land tenure policies that would enhance efficiency in production. The study is based on the understanding that land tenure alone will not be enough to indicate the levels of efficiency of individual farms, other socio economic factors such as gender, education and farm size would also be expected to be important determinants of efficiency. A stochastic frontier was used to estimate technical efficiency and relate it to land tenure and socio economic factors using data from 22 districts from the main agro–ecological zones. The study found that parcels with land titles have a higher efficiency level. Other factors such as education status of head, access to fertilizers, and group participation were also found to significantly influence technical efficiency. The study recommends that the process of land registration should be extended to other regions of the country but at the same time other factors such as access to inputs and improvement of education status should also be addressed.